BCS External Content Type Configuration

In this article we can explore how to configure BCS External Content Type in SharePoint 2013.

BCS

BCS (Business Connectivity Services) allows Interfacing to Data that does not Live in SharePoint. For example, we can connect to External Databases, OData Sources etc.

When to use BCS?

The ideal scenarios to use BCS are:

· To leverage an existing SQL Server Table containing Data. BCS would free us from duplicating the Table in SharePoint. BCS also saves the cost involved in Synchronizing Data if there are users working on updating the source table.

· In Internal SharePoint application requiring data from External application. In this case we can create Custom .Net BCS Providers.

BCS Example

In our example we are creating a BCS List pointing to SQL Server Table. Please follow the steps below to create the BCS List in SharePoint. After the List creation, you will be able to Add/Edit/Delete items in the List & everything will reflect back in the SQL Server Table.